Out'a the Stereotype
by Miss Black Dragon
Summary: Take your average GSC trainer journey story. Throw in a few ingredients, eg. moving PoVs, lots of sarcasm, a breeder who is crushing on a trainer gal crushing on her rival, a few too many cousins, and a different sort of trainer's challenge. Voila.
1. Ironic little love triangle

"Hey, Tari. Tari. OKay, you wanna be called Rika? HELLO?!?"

Tarika Evans looked up from her notebook, pen, as always, incorrectly held in her right hand. Seeing who the speaker was, she slammed the notebook shut and jumped up. 

"Hi Zack." she replied, not trusting herself to say much more around her crush. 

"What are you doing here, sitting down on a Cherrygrove City sidewalk and doing something in your notebook? A diary or something?"

Tarika blushed. "Sitting down on a Cherrygrove City sidewalk and doing something in my notebook, that's what." In reality, she'd actually been writing sappy love poetry with Zack Johnson as the subject.

Zack cocked his head and planted his hands on his hips. "I guess that means you're not gonna tell me." A smile played across his face, making Tarika's heart melt. She bravely smiled down at him – though she was 10 months younger than Zack, her growth spurts had kicked in earlier than his, and she'd always been the same height or taller anyway.

"Nope."

"Fine." Looking Tarika up and down, he *finally* noticed the Poké Ball on the strap slung across her shoulder. "Oh, you finally got your first Pokémon?"

Tarika smiled. "Hell yeah."

"In that case…" he grabbed a Poké Ball off his belt, enlarged it, and tossed it from hand to hand like a juggler. "I, Zachary Johnson, challenge you, Tarika Evans, to a one-on-one Pokémon battle."

A grin spread over Tarika's face, as she removed the Poké Ball from her one shoulder backpack strap and enlarged it with one swift motion. "You're on. And did I mention that I love hearing you say my name?"

Both New Bark Town trainers hurled out their Poké Balls, with cries of "Go, Fuego!" and "Splashter, you're on!" However, Zack preferred a flashy throw where the Poké Ball went spinning out, opened mid-spin, and spun back to him in an arc, while Tarika went with the usual 'throw, wait for the Ball to come back to you'. Starter Pokémon from Professor Elm's lab leapt out of each Poké Ball, Fuego the Cyndaquil standing in front of Zack and Splashter the Totodile fighting for Tarika. Both Pokémon stood their ground, making mock Growls at each other.

Zack smiled. "With your fiery spirit, I would've thought you'd get Cyndaquil."

Tarika put on her most annoying expression – calm and cool. "I would have loved ta. Unfortunately YOU DID, remember? So I thought at least I'd go for the type advantage over ya."

"I thought girls usually preferred cute Pokémon?" He coughed twice, Tarika catching the word "Chikorita" in between coughs. Zack smirked, knowing that making references to the stereotype of girl trainers was a good way of starting up Tarika's anger motor.

"I'm not the usual girl, OKay?!?"

Zack shrugged. "Oh yeah, met up with Jace the other day. Said he had a letter for ya, catch!" He took an envelope from his knapsack and threw it at Tarika, who caught it and used a pocketknife to slash the envelope open.

The letter was scrawled in Jace's usual slightly messy handwriting on Surf Mail. Tarika squinted at the paper, trying to read the blue writing over the Lapras print.

__

Hi Tari – hug me. :P

Nah, just kidding. How's your journey going? Still in love with Zack? :P Mail me back if you get a chance.

Forever yours,

JaCe

Tarika looked up, stuffing the letter into her backpack. "Zack, you wouldn't happen to know if Jace is crushing on me or anything, would you? He signed the letter, forever yours, Jace."

Zack facepalmed. "He is. I heard him sleep talking once. I quote, 'Tari, I love you, I've always loved you, ever since I first laid eyes on your black hair.' It's such an ironic little love triangle. It's sort of ridiculous, my best friend loves the girl who he knows and I know loves me."

Tarika kept silent. A wise decision, as anything she thought of to say would have made her look like a lovesick little loon.

"Fuego, Tackle attack!"

The little fire echidna lunged for Splashter eagerly, and would have hit, had Tarika not called her own command in time.

"Double Team!"

Splashter flickered out of normal vision, then two versions of the Totodile quickly appeared, disappeared, and reappeared around Fuego, making the Cyndaquil rather confused.

Zack gaped at the Totodile. "How'd you get TM 32? No one should have that at this point in their journey, you can only get TM 32 at the Celadon Game Corner!"

Tarika smirked and shrugged, in almost perfect replication of Zack himself. "I've got a cousin in Celadon City. Erika, the Celadon City Gym Leader, heard of her?"

Zack groaned, and Tarika's grin grew wider. "Now, Dig attack!"

Zack gasped, as Splashter clawed its way underground. "Again, I ask you… How did you get a Digging Totodile with no badges yet whatsoever?"

Tarika smiled. "I've also got a florist cousin in Goldenrod City. Her daughter found the TM in the National Park, had no use for it, and sent it off to me via Pidgeot Air Mail."

Fuego looked frantically around itself, and fractional motions in the ground were the only sign that there was an underground Pokémon. Suddenly, Splashter exploded from the ground in a fury of Pokémon and upturned dirt – right underneath Fuego. Taking all things into consideration:

Splashter was level 8, compared to Fuego's untrained level 5

Totodiles' Attack and Defense stats are generally higher than Cyndaquils'

Dig was a ground type attack, which is super effective against Fire type like Fuego

The Cyndaquil instantly fainted, and Zack started to look very, very pale. He got out a wad of cash from his pocket, and as Tarika walked past him, she kissed him on the cheek and took the money at the same time.

"I may love you, but that doesn't mean I won't try my hardest at everything I do. Train your Cyndaquil a tad, by the way."

With that, she was gone, lost into the large building of the Cherrygrove City Pokémon Center. Still stunned at what had happened, both the battle loss and the peck on the cheek, Zack fainted. Yes, he had known of Tarika's crush on him, Jace had made sure of that, but still…


	2. Weird noises in my mp3 player

Tarika

__

I left my conscience somewhere with my rhythm

I heard about it from the mouth of a man

He was hoppin' some trains and combing the land

Looking for a lover

"Hey, you. Hello, miss red bandanna and black hair? Are you listening to me?"

Hmm. I wonder how those weird noises got into my mp3 player.

__

Planted in the east

Tryin'a run from the dreaded fist beast

"HELLO, ARE YOU A TRAINER OR WHAT?!?!?!?"

I looked around a tad, not seeing the yeller I turned up the volume on the player.

A sudden tap on my shoulder caused me to jump as if I'd been attacked by Raikou. Quickly, I jabbed at the pause button and ripped off my headphones.

"What?"

I blinked, not seeing anyone. Then, glancing at the ground, I saw this kid, about 10, dark hair, shorts, T-shirt, backwards baseball cap, Poké Ball in hand, and a rather exasperated look on his face.

"Uh…" I said dumbly.

The kid got up. "Are you a trainer, by any chance?"

I continued to blink. "Uh… Ya… And?"

The boy put his head in his hands, as if it should be obvious.

Then it dawned on me. "Oh. Battle, is it?"

He shot me a dirty look. "YES."

I immediately brightened up. "Oh, OKay. I, Tarika Evans, challenge you, uh… what's your name?"

He smiled at me pityingly. "You're a new trainer, aren't you?"

I turned red, not wanting to let him know that he was correct. "Your point being?"

"We don't bother with formalities out here."

I smiled. "Oh, OKay!"

"Let's get started already. Go, Ratatta!" The trainer enlarged the Poké Ball and released a Ratatta. I glanced over it.

"Let's see… It's a Ratatta, that much is obvious… Male, is it?" The trainer nodded. "Level… 2, 3?"

"3. Hurry up, will ya…"

I smiled again. "Sorry, just checking. And ya, I do do this before every battle." I removed a Poké Ball from my backpack strap, enlarging it at the same time – a trick that had taken me a month to perfect. "Bugsta, go!"

Bugsta, my level 3, newly caught Caterpie, leapt out of the Ball. 

Both of us yelled the same attack. "Tackle attack!"

Bugsta and the guy's Ratatta lunged for each other, colliding in mid air. I winced – my cousins across Johto and Kanto had sent me some Butterfree capable TMs, but I knew that Butterfree was the only stage in the evolutionary chain that could use TMs.

"Bugsta, keep Tackling that thing – if your HP gets too low, use that Berry I gave ya, Kayz?"

"Ratatta, you keep Tackling too!"

The Pokémon kept leaping, hitting, landing, over and over.

*_It's too fast… Hang on, Ratatta only has one move at this stage!_*

"Bugsta, use String Shot to slow it down!"

Bugsta stood his ground, forming Caterpie silk in his mouth. When the thread was ready, he took aim and shot it straight at the Ratatta, catching its front left leg and slowing it down.

"Good on ya, the other legs now! We want to get it as slow as possible!"

It took a while, but eventually that Ratatta was moving as slow as a Snorlax.

"Argh! Ratatta, keep trying to Tackle it!"

I grinned. "Bugsta, keep dodging – it's only got about 15PP left!"

The Ratatta lunged again. "Make that 14!"

"ERGH, keep trying to hit it!"

"13!

"12!  
"11!  
"10!

"9!

"8!

"7!

"6!

"5!

"4!

"3!

"2!

"1!  
"Bugsta, Tackle as much as you like, all it can do now is Struggle and that has recoil!"

The other trainer was now sitting on the ground with his head in his hands. Raising his head fractionally, he gave the only order he could with a sigh. "Struggle."

Within a few hits (not to mention quite a few Struggles, with recoil), the Ratatta was down. I held out my hand, smiling, and the guy stuck in a wad of cash.

"Thank yaz. Get that Ratatta to a Pokémon Center, the Cherrygrove City Center's pretty near, and Mr. Pokémon might heal it. After that, get some more training in your schedule, kay?"

I smiled at him smugly, and walked off, handing Bugsta a Berry. 

I slowly made my way to Violet City, running back to the Cherrygrove City Pokémon Center after almost every battle. (Hey, if there's free healing available to ya, don't waste your Berries.) When I finally got to Violet, I explored town. Talked to all the townspeople, found out the Gym's weakness (rock or electric – there were two under trainers and a gym leader, all of whom used Flying type), went to this Pokémon school that reminded me of the Trainers classes back at New Bark Town Elementary, traded the Bellsprout I caught for an Onix, figuring it would come in handy for the upcoming Gym. I even went up north a tad to see the 'wiggly tree that squirms and dances when you talk to it'. And you know what else happened? I met up with Jace.


	3. The famous wiggly tree

Jace

Hmm… So this is the famous 'wiggly tree' that's scuttlebutt around town. I poked it experimentally, and true to the gossip, it moved. I thought I saw a flicker of white – eyes, maybe?

I pulled out my waterbottle, and splashed it. It suddenly started squirming – hard. I set down the bottle and ran my hands over the 'tree'. For some reason, it didn't feel like the easily broken off bark that most trees had – more like… rock?

"Yo, Jace!"

I gasped, and fell backwards. Surprised, I looked up, into the face of…

Tarika? I'm dreaming, right? And then like in most dreams, she's gonna bend down and kiss me.

She smiled mischievously, and stuck out a hand to help me out. I turned red, suddenly realizing a sharp pain in my lower back.

Damn. Not a dream, then.

I took her hand, getting up in the process. I rubbed my back ashamedly. "Ow. Ya startled me." 

Tarika frowned, the sad little frown I'd do anything for. "Aw, just because we're Pokémon trainers and breeders doesn't mean we can't forget tradition…"

Tradition? Oh. Right. I put on the old, cocky voice I always used to use at New Bark Town Elementary. "Hi Tari."

She brightened up. "Hi Jace."

"Hug me."

She rolled her eyes, another part of the old tradition we'd had going since we managed to be split up into different classes and she'd head down to my class during break times to see her older friends. Both of us were saddened by the split, for reasons the same and different. (For her, her best friends and Zack were in my class, me, Tarika wasn't.) Hell, she'd even joked about going on strike once, before calming down about it and realizing that she was one of the youngest of her age group anyway.

When I finally managed to work up the courage to ask her if she truly was crushing on Zack, she turned red in that little way of hers, didn't answer for a while, and finally let out a small "Uh… Ya." The rest of my last year at New Bark Town Elementary were mentally painful, especially that time a friend of hers blurted out Tarika's little secret to Zack himself. His answer… It visibly tore her apart (that was the last time I trusted Safire), and did the same to me, but no one could see it.

__

"I already knew."

It tore her apart… Until he had to get her hopes up again just by that simple "Hi" as he used the school crossing while she was on patrol. I'm telling you, I *lived* for those moments she'd talk to me, joke, even if she hit me over the head (which she did often), I'd love her. The worst part was probably the constant knowledge that Zack knew of both our crushes… Of course he'd know, I'm his best freaking friend, and Tarika *always* sat next to him at writing group! It was still painful though, and I suppose it's slightly worse now, not knowing where Tarika is, not like in New Bark Town where I always knew that hers was the house near Professor Elm's lab.

She smiled – she smiled often but I still cherished every one of them directed at me. "Watcha doin'?"

I pointed to the 'tree' behind me.

"Ooooooh, it's that wiggly tree everyone in Violet City's talking about!" she squealed.

"Yep, that's it," I replied, pleased that she knew what it was. "But check this out…" Blushing, I took her hands, and placed them on the tree bark. Slowly, I moved them up and down, the tree shuddering slightly.

She frowned, the old 'Tarika is thinking' frown. "Doesn't feel like a tree…"

I nodded, taking her hands off and letting go. "I think it's a Pokémon. A Rock type, coz it squirmed rather violently when it got wet."

Her eyes widened. "A Rock type? I wanna catch it!" She swiped a Poké Ball from her bag strap, enlarging it at the same time. I'd watched her practice that, she'd thought it would impress Zack – but he ended up doing some flashy spin trick for releasing the Pokémon anyway. He was always a show off, even before he really knew Tari was crushing on him.

I flipped out my Poké Dex, in the same manner that Tarika'd grab her Poké Balls. It beeped, scanning the tree.

"Pokémon entry not found. Level 20."

Tarika gasped. "Level… 20… My highest is level 10…"

I nodded decidedly. "Exactly my point. I suppose you could try when you get to the other side of the tree though. The closest town to here is Goldenrod City, and your Pokémon should be stronger by then. Especially since the Goldenrod Gym Leader has a level 20 Miltank that knows Rollout," I whispered.

"Hey, what're you two whispering about?" 

This time, both of us jumped. I was the first to recover, whipping round to face a rather cocky Zack. "Make a little more noise when sneaking up on us, why don't'cha?" I asked him, slightly angry.

He smirked. "Ooooooh, so now it's 'us', is it?"

To my surprise, Tarika took on a defensive tone as well. "Got any other words for 'me and this idiot next to me'?"

OKay. So she still thinks I'm an idiot, even if I am handling the 'other side' of Pokémon breeding. I'll cope. Dunno if the pages of my journal will, though.

Zack shrugged. "Point taken. Come to see the famous wiggly tree, have you?"

I sighed. I'd obviously have to repeat my findings. Tarika, with her good memory, beat me to it. "Jace reckons it's a Pokémon. Rock type – 's got an aversion to water." 

"And it's Level 20, so don't even think of trying to catch it. And you _are_ taking on that six-to-beat-the-Gyms-and-League bet I set you, aren't'cha?"

He smiled. "Yeah. Needed a challenge, and you'll be paying me ten grand in Poké Yen at the end of the Johto League."

Tarika looked rather curious by this stage. "Six-to-beat-the-Gyms-and-League?"

I smiled. "Ah. Well, at our leavers' dinner, Zack said to me, 'Jace, you're good at making up dares, help me out here. You know I wanna become a Pokémon master, in the old style **beat all the gyms in both countries, ditto every trainer, beat up the Elite 4, oh and beat Red while you're at it** that runs rampant. I wanna beat everyone – but in a way that will give everyone a shock. Can you think of anything on short notice?' The most I could think of was beating everyone using only six Pokémon, not catching anything other than what you catch in the beginning of your journey, unless you need extra for HMs or something, but the HM slave can't battle. So I explained it to him, chucking a ten grand bet in there, and he agreed."

"And now I'm stuck with Fuego, Oneida, Lanzo, Higad, Velneno, and my most un-originally named anything yet, Scout."

Tarika snorted. "Lemme guess, Scout's a Sentret? Now that's just corny. Even for you, oh story of Jack and Zack. Although I have to say, I'm glad I'm not the only one who nicknames their Pokémon."

I raised an eyebrow, inquisitive Pokémon breeder that I am. Yes, I do usually deal with the eggs side of Pokémon breeding, but I have to watch out for their welfare as well, or the egg could turn out bad. "Let's see the Pokémon? Both of ya."

They both shrugged. "OKay."

With various releasing tricks, Ball swipes and throws, and enough beam noise to hurt even my ears (and that's saying a lot, considering I tend to have a lot of Golbat and Gyrados around at odd times), a lot of the space this side of Route 36 was filled by twelve Pokémon, scaring off some of the tourists.

Tarika grinned. "I'll introduce first." Her Pokémon instinctively lined up – not too shabby a lot, either. She pointed to a Totodile, pro'lly her starter from Professor Elm. "This is Splashter, and the Pidgey next to him's Flya. Rocky's a Geodude, and the Onix I got from this kid in Violet City's called Rocky too, so that causes confusion rather often. This li'l Butterfree's called Bugsta, and I've also got a Ratatta, Jawz."

I scanned my Poké Dex over them. "Level 10, the lot of 'em?" She nodded. "You did a nice job training them. OKay Zack, let's see yours."

Zack smiled. "First of all, all of mine are at Level 10 too. Well, Fuego's my starter, a Cyndaquil – Tari, you and Splashter have already met him." Tarika smirked, and a decidedly evil look came over the Totodile's face. I glimpsed Fuego leap behind Zack's leg, cowering. Hmm, Splashter must have beaten Fuego sometime. "I've got a Geodude as well, female too, her name's Oneida. I decided to get a Spearow instead of the usual Pidgey, this is Lanzo. Higad and Velneno are male Butterfree and Beedrill, and last but not least of the line up is Scout, a Sentret, like Tari said."

I whistled. "Nice sets, both'a ya. Sentret – nice Pokémon to round out the types, they're very versatile. The amount of TMs they can use practically makes them the Johto equivalent of Clefairy – Thunder Punching Sneasels and Fire Punching Wooper make for rather funny reactions in battles."

They smiled, and recalled their Pokémon. Suddenly, a beep sounded from all three of our Poké Gears, and darkness dropped incredibly fast. "Six o'clock," Tarika announced, after a quick glance at her Poké Gear.

"It's getti- no, it **is** dark, we'd better get back to Violet City."  
Tarika agreed with a shrug, and we started walking back to Violet City.


	4. You and your conspiracy theories

Zack

A Hoothoot chirped loudly from the nearby grass, and I almost jumped. "I don't remember night time coming down this fast in New Bark Town, do you guys?"

Jace shook his head. "Nope. It was gradual, first the sun came down, then it got dark, and *then* the moon and stars went up."

"It's weird, like someone just flipped a couple of switches, and voila, night time, no trace of the sun." Tarika agreed. "So many things are different when you're on a Pokémon journey… People don't ask me if I'm old enough to go out on my own anymore. I guess people think if you have Pokémon, you can go anywhere on your own." Suddenly, a Gastly popped up in her face. I saw Jace move to 'protect' her out of the corner of my eye, but Tarika merely facefaulted and tapped the release button on one of her Poké Balls. Bugsta leapt out with a Confusion attack, dispatching the Gastly quickly. It then went back into the Poké Ball.

"We're not in grass of any length, it looks like that Gastly was stalking us," she noted.

"Nah – just you – Zack's too ugly to stalk, ditto moi." Jace replied. I raised an eyebrow and made an 'S' sign with my fingers behind Tarika's back – our sign for a sarcastic "_Real smooth._"

Tarika rolled her eyes, sidestepping a small Spinarak. "Agh, I've had it with wild Pokémon popping up when there isn't any grass!"

I blinked. "You wouldn't happen to have a cousin in Ilex Forest, woulja?" Whispering to Jace, I added, "She's got cousins practically _everywhere_, who send her heaps of TMs, and pro'lly items too. Her Totodile wasted Fuego with Double Team and Dig, before she was even out of Route 30."

"Ouch. Pity, pity, pity." Jace whispered back. "But was Fuego actually trained when he got wasted?"

"Nope. Your point being?"

Meanwhile, Tarika was trying to figure out the relevance of my question, and dodge various nocturnal Pokémon. "Nope… And none of my Pokémon have Attract _or_ Sweet Scent."

"Puh. Must be you with Attract then. Sure is working rather well." Jace muttered, too low for the preoccupied Tarika to catch, but enough for me to hear. I snickered quietly.

We finally went past a Violet City house, and the Pokémon immediately turned back at the Violet City boundary. Tarika 'tsk'ed. "Well then. Looks like it only happens on Route 30, and at night. Oh well, they *should* leave me alone now."

I thought over the odd spectacle. "Who knows, there could be some weird machine out there that randomly generates a route number, a time of the day, and a trainer registration number and tells the Pokémon of that route and time to stalk that trainer everyday."

Jace raised an eyebrow, as did Tarika. Together, they remarked, "You and your conspiracy theories. Grow up."

**__**

Some far off place in Johto where no trainer has been before or after…

today's route of the day: 30 (johto)

time: evening

trainer registration number: 296839

trainer name: Tarika Evans (female)

trainer description: black hair w/ dark blue/flame streaks, sea blue/green eyes, orange l/sleeves shirt, camouflage print bell bottoms, red League standard bandanna

most likely companions: Zachary Johnson, Jacon Acklyn

__

(back to Zack and co.)

Now that she was free from the Pokémon stalkers, Tarika was gazing up at the night sky. "Maybe there's a reason that night time comes on faster when you're a trainer…" she breathed, aqua coloured eyes transfixed on one star. "Check it out… It looks so much prettier than before, back in New Bark Town."

We all looked up at the sky together, and Jace suddenly smiled. "Don't forget to make a wish."

We started to recite the familiar child's poem, the one that Jace and Tarika still clung to and I only said to keep life interesting. I could easily guess what they were wishing for, but my wish would remain a secret. For now, at least.


End file.
